The Best Siri Hacks So Far

Dissatisfied with Siri's already impressive personal assistant skills, hackers have taken her to the next level, manipulating her technology to do more than just send text messages. Within weeks, we got a glimpse of Siri's capabilities when an ad agency rigged her to open a can of beer and another hacked her to unlock a door, using arduino technology. Since then, developer Pete Lamonica has provided a new platform for others looking to extend Siri's abilities, developing Siri Proxy, a server that can be used to connect the iPhone command system to other objects. Lamonica's hack can be traced back further to Steven Troughton-Smith, who successfully found a (complicated) way to bypass Siri's authentication servers in order to install the voice-controlled miracle on any iOS device, including iPads, iPod Touches and the iPhone 3GS just a few days after Siri hit the market. On Monday, fellow jailbreaker Eric Day released a set of instructions that simplifies that process and makes it easy to install Siri on any jailbroken Apple iOS device.

All of this, unsurprisingly, has led to even more creative uses for Siri. And we imagine this is just the beginning.

Siri Adjusts the Room Temperature

As his maiden Siri hack, developer Pete Lamonica rigged her up to his thermostat, proving that his Siri Proxy indeed works. The hack has Siri send his voice commands to the proxy, which is hooked up to and reads his thermostat, as you can see below.

Siri Starts a Car

Developer Brandon Fiquette hacked Siri to start his car using Lamonica's Siri Proxy plug-in. When Fiquette commands Siri to start the engine, his phone sends a message to a sever on his website that transmits this command to his car, which is outfitted with a Viper Smart Start system that turns on the car. Pretty cool. Here's his video proof:

Siri Sets the Mood

Again using the Siri Proxy, YouTube user Phildman14 manipulated Siri to turn on and off lights as well as open and close curtains:

Siri Controls Your TV

Developer Hjalti Jakobsson created a plugin for Plex, a media player, that allows him to ask Siri to play shows on his TV. She even knows when his TV doesn't have a certain program, as you can see in the video. For the laziest TV watchers, this Siri hack might be just what Steve Jobs had in mind for his "revolutionary" Apple TV:

Siri Can Do Anything

Thanks to Siri Proxy, developers can hook Siri up to anything. The following video by developer Ian McDowell explains how to use the plugin for any possible task: